The northern area race fans of Minnesota and Wisconsin,, particularly those of the Late Model persuasion, are pretty excited this week. It is not a normal thing to get the opportunity to see the stars of Super Late Model racing perform at their local tracks but that is happening this week as Barry Braun has brought the XR Super Series Late Models to the Proctor Speedway in Minnesota and the Gondik Law Speedway in Wisconsin, both sitting on the shores of Lake Superior, for a very special back to back presentation before they move on to East Central Minnesota for a fifty thousand dollar to win event later this week at the Ogilvie Raceway.
The World of Outlaws Late Models have raced at Gondik Law in years past but never has there been a race of this magnitude at Proctor, a three eighth mile red clay oval that sits up the hill overlooking Duluth and Lake Superior. The two tracks are only about fifteen minutes a part and they do work together with Gondik racing on Friday nights and Proctor on Sundays but Sundays have been a struggle in recent years, both in getting race cars and fans and for them to have an event of this stature, they would need someone like Braun to come in and put the show on.
This race was known as "The Superior Showcase" night one, even though it wasn't held in Superior at all but over the bridge in Proctor. The reason being for the confusion, which actually did have some people not sure in which running order the two races would be held was that originally, Gondik in Superior was supposed to be held on Monday and Proctor would then race on Tuesday.
However, the South St. Louis County Fair starts this upcoming weekend and they claimed they needed extra days to get set up for the Fair, so the two tracks swapped nights which allowed the Proctor fairgrounds one extra day for set up. The kicker was that they closed off the entire parking lot, even though they had only a few carny rigs parked there, so all the fans that wanted to attend the races on Monday had to park on city streets and walk to the track and for handicapped fans, that meant they had no close by parking. There has long been a rift between some members of the Fair Board and the speedway and this was a chance to "poke it" to the race track. The only problem was that they make their town look bad for all the traveling fans at the race, of which there were considerable. These folks leave town not having the best thoughts about the town, but the tunnel vision oldsters of the Fair Board don't even think about that. They even had city police guarding the parking lot against what, I am not sure? Perhaps invading hoards of race fans plotting to sweep in and take over the parking lot?
In any event, let's move on to the racing at hand. There were twenty six Late Models in the pits for the show. About thirteen could be legitimately considered as open motor travelers with the WoO and Lucas Oil. They did bring in some good ones including Erb and Erb, Marlar, Sheppard, Pierce, Mad Max, Thornton, Moran, Hoffman, Gustin and Moyer. The rest of the field was made up mostly by WISSOTA Late Model racers of the area with their spec engine cars and there were about a dozen of them including Danny Vang, who was on hand just to watch until the itch to race got too strong and with only twenty six drivers in total, everyone made the main and it was a grand to start so he unloaded and joined the fun. He would eventually finish seventeenth. There were bonuses offered to the local spec engine cars with the highest finisher receiving an extra five hundred dollars and the highest finishing driver that arrived on an open trailer also getting five hundred. Those two winners would be Travis Budisalovich and Kevin Burdick respectively.
Along with the Late Models, the two support classes would be the WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds and the Renegade Non Wing Sprints, an area group that runs 360 sprints without wings as a traveling series in this area with their home track being the Grand Rapids Speedway where they race every other week. There would be twenty one of the MidMods and fifteen Sprints on hand.
Proctor is a red clay track(that's the only kind of surface they have here in Lake Superior country) that is paper clipped shaped with long straights and tight corners with medium banking. Bobby Pierce set quick time with a lap of 14.616 seconds. XR programs are run straight up off times with Pierce, Moran and Hoffman winning heats and then the feature is straight up off heat results.
They were chasing the rain on this night with showers headed toward the Twin Ports so everyone was in high gear mode to get the show completed with the Late Models first on the schedule, a very good idea indeed.
A little track prep was done before the feature and to me, it looked like it might be a night where the low groove was dominant and most would be racing in "The Ditch." But once again, I showed that I should not be teaching Track Prep 101 as when the drivers hit the track, they raced all over the surface, moving high and low and using every inch of the track, unlike what I have seen in Proctor in quite some time. They produced one of the most outstanding Late Model races that I have seen all year with the feature race going nonstop for forty laps and the top four racing under a blanket until the very last laps of the event. Who would have guessed that we would see one of the best races of the year in little old Proctor Minnesota! Every involved with the track prep should take a bow and also the drivers for searching and working the track to find the fast lane, which switched at least three times over the forty laps. It was quite frankly, just an outstanding race.
Moran led the first twenty two laps of the race with Pierce, Marlar, Gustin and and Hoffman close behind him. Pierce was looking high and low and experimented with several different grooves before he made the pass for the lead in lapped traffic. Moran then chased him with third and fourth place were also right in the mix. The field dropped to the inside lane for a few laps but then suddenly, many again bolted back up to the top in what was an intense and highly entertaining race.
At the end, Pierce pulled away by a few car lengths to take the win over Moran, Marlar, Gustin and Hoffman with Sheppard and Brent Larson also close to them. Twelve cars were still on the lead lap at the finish and nineteen still on the track. Everyone raved about the track and deservedly so. Many of the driver until recently probably had no clue where Proctor Minnesota even was but I think they will remember now.
The support classes performed well also, even as a number of folks in the grandstands headed out early. There were three different leaders in the MidMod feature with "The Superstar", Adam Shinn having his best run of the year as he led the opening five laps before being passed by Paul Ripley.
A yellow six laps into the race bunched the field once again, but Ripley continued to lead, even as Joey Jensen worked his way up from his eighth starting spot. Jensen eventually tracked down the leader and after they raced side by side for several laps, Jensen took the top spot on lap eleven and he led the rest of the way for the win.
This has been a very good year, to this point, for Jensen who has raced much more than in recent years. This marked a back to back win as he also was the winner here on Sunday night for a regular weekly program. Blake Adams used a lapped car for a pick and edged out Ripley for second on the final lap with Tyler Vernon and Sam Blevins completing the top five. Sam's father Michael returned from a heat race flip with a repaired car to finish seventh in the main.
The Traditional Sprints wrapped up the evening with their own good show. In a race stopped only once for a spin, Chris Lewis made a lap sixteen pass of leader Brad Cunningham to take the win. Cunningham looked solid as the leader, having led from the drop of the green.
Unfortunately, that lone yellow was all it took for his lead to evaporate and Lewis drove by him on the top side of the track to take over the top spot and then drive away for the win. Cunningham settled for second and was trailed by Brad Peterson, Jori Hughes and Paul Schultz. All fifteen cars that started the feature were still running at the end and all on the lead lap.
They beat the rain and the whole program was wrapped up by around 9:30 pm. It was an outstanding show by everyone including the drivers, XR officials and the local track officials and prep crew that did their job to perfection. A big crowd was on hand and had to be impressed with both XR and the Proctor Speedway. The hope is that now that they have showed what they can do, that these drivers will be anxious to return again next year.
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